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Suicide bombers target Iranian center in Beirut

19 February 2014 20:06 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Two suicide bombers targeted the Iranian cultural center in Beirut on Wednesday, killing four people and themselves in an attack claimed by Sunni militants who said it was a response to the intervention of Iran and Hezbollah in the Syrian war, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The army said two cars packed with explosives had been used in the rush hour attack in the predominantly Shi'ite southern suburbs of Beirut. Similar tactics were used in a twin suicide attack on the nearby Iranian embassy in November.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an al Qaeda-linked group, claimed responsibility for the attack, which wounded more than 100 people and was condemned by Lebanon's Sunni Prime Minister Tammam Salam as an act of terrorism.

In a post on Twitter, the Brigades described the "twin martyrdom operation" on the Iranian center as retaliation for Hezbollah's role in Syria and pledged more attacks. The blast went off about 20 meters (yards) from the targeted building.

The judge investigating the attack said a total of 160 kg of explosives had been used. The Iranian ambassador in Lebanon said the dead included a Lebanese policeman who had been guarding the cultural center, but none of its staff were wounded.

The area is a stronghold of the Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the civil war in neighboring Syria. It was the seventh such bombing in Beirut's southern suburbs since July.

The war in Syria has exacerbated Sunni-Shi'ite tensions in Lebanon, triggering violence including frequent clashes between armed groups in the northern city of Tripoli.

The attack follows a new drive by Lebanese leaders to stem the impact of the Syria conflict on their country.

Rival politicians finally agreed on a new government on Saturday after Lebanon went for 11 months without a cabinet, while the security forces last week captured a man described as the al Qaeda-linked mastermind of recent attacks and seized a number of cars rigged with explosives and ready for use.